Density and urban "quality" vs. sprawl: new recipes and re-emerging old motives. The case of London

Journal title ARCHIVIO DI STUDI URBANI E REGIONALI
Author/s Cecilia Scoppetta
Publishing Year 2014 Issue 2014/109
Language Italian Pages 22 P. 74-95 File size 118 KB
DOI 10.3280/ASUR2014-109005
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

By critically comparing the "treatment" for the phenomenon of suburban sprawl given by the disciplinary tradition with the "recipe" proposed Tony Blair’s New Labour and framed within the concept "roll-out neo-liberalism" in its European "declination", the essay is aimed at highlight the re-emerging of some hidden motives that are at the hearth of urban planning as a technical discipline.

Keywords: Suburban sprawl, urban decline, middle-class, density, quality of design, roll-out neo-liberalism, disciplinary tradition.

  1. Bannister J., Fyfe N. and Kearns, A. (2006). Respectable or respectful? (In)civility and the city. Urban Studies, 43, 5-6: 919-937.
  2. Benevolo L. (1985). Le origini dell'urbanistica moderna. Bari: Laterza.
  3. Bianchetti C. e Ernesti G., a cura di (1987). Il tecnico urbanista: tre momenti di definizione delle competenze disciplinari. Urbanistica, 86.
  4. Bourdieu P. (2004). Firing back – Against the tyranny of the Market 2. New York: The New Press.
  5. Breheny M. and Hall P., eds. (1996). The People: Where Will They Go? National Report of the TCPA Regional Inquiry into Housing Need and Provision in England. London: TCPA.
  6. Brenner N. (2004). Urban governance and the production of new state spaces in western Europe, 1960–2000. Review of International Political Economy, 11, 3: 447-488.
  7. Brenner, N., Peck, J. and Theodore, N. (2010). Variegated neoliberalisation: geographies, modalities, pathways. Global Networks, 10, 2: 182-222.
  8. Brenner N. and Theodore N. (2002). Cities and the Geographies of ‘Actually Existing Neoliberalism’. In: Brenner N. and Theodore N., editors, Spaces of Neoliberalism: Urban restructuring in North America and Western Europe. Oxford: Blackwell.
  9. Calabi D. (1979). Il “male” città: diagnosi e terapia. Didattica e istituzioni nell’urbanistica inglese del primo ’900. Roma: Officina.
  10. Cameron S. and Coaffee J. (2006). Housing Market Renewal as Urban Revanchism? Paper presentato alla Revenge and Renewal Conference”, University of Newcastle, 10-11 agosto.
  11. Carmona M. (1996). Controlling Urban Design. Part 1: A Possible Renaissance? Part 2: Realizing the Potential. Journal of Urban Design, 1, 1.
  12. Carmona M. (1999). Innovation in the control of residential design: What lessons for wider practice? Town Planning Review, 70, 4.
  13. Carmona M. (2000). Urban Design-By Design, Urban Design Quarterly, 76.
  14. Champion A.G., ed. (1989). Counterurbanization: The Changing Face and Nature of Population Deconcentration. London: Edward Arnold. Charman S. and Savage S. (2002). Toughing it out: New Labour’s criminal record. In: Powell M., ed., Evaluating New Labour’s Welfare Reforms. Bristol: Policy Press.
  15. Cheshire P. (1995). A new phase of urban development in Western Europe? Evidence for the 1980s. Urban Studies, 32, 7: 1045-1063.
  16. Chevalier L. (1958). Classes laborieuses et classes dangeures à Paris. Paris: Plon.
  17. Choay F. (1965). L’urbanisme. Utopie et rèalités. Paris: Edition du Seuil.
  18. Choay F. (1980). La régle e le modèle. Paris: Seuil.
  19. Cochrane A. (2000). New Labour, new urban policy? In: Dean H., Sykes R. and Woods R., editors. Social Policy Review, 12.
  20. Cochrane A. (2007). Understanding Urban Policy: A Critical Approach. Oxford: Blackwell.
  21. Coleman R. (2003). Images from a neoliberal city: The state, surveillance and social control. Critical Criminology, 12: 21-42.
  22. Coleman R. (2004). Watching the degenerate: Street camera surveillance and urban re generation. Local Economy,19, 3: 199-211.
  23. Coleman R. and Sim J. (2000). ‘You’ll never walk alone’: CCTV surveillance, order and neoliberal rule in Liverpool city centre. British Journal of Sociology, 51: 626-639.
  24. Coleman R., Tombs S. and Whyte D. (2005). Capital, crime control and statecraft in the entrepreneurial city. Urban Studies, 42, 13: 2511-2530.
  25. Colenutt B. (1999). New Deal or no deal for people based regeneration? In: Imrie R. and Thomas H., eds., British Urban Policy: An Evaluation of the UDCs. London: Sage.
  26. Conan Doyle A. (1998). The Best of Sherlock Holmes, (1887-1927). Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Classics.
  27. Cooper D. (1998). Regard between strangers: Diversity, equality and the reconstruction of public space. Critical Social Policy, 18, 4: 465-492.
  28. County Planning Officer’s Society – Metropolitan Planning Officer’s Society and District Planning Officer’s Society (1989). Planning in the urban fringe. Initial report of the joint special advisory group. Cleveland: County Council.
  29. Dauton M.J. (1983). Experts and the Environment. Approaches to Planning Histories. Journal of Urban History, 2.
  30. DETR – Department of the Environment, Transport and The Regions (2000). Our Towns and Cities: The Future. Delivering an Urban Renaissance. White Paper presented to Parliament by the Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions by Command of Her Majesty. London: HMSO.
  31. Dickens C. (1854). Hard Times: For These Times. Household Words (trad. it.: Tempi difficili, Milano: Garzanti, 2002).
  32. Donzelot J. et Estèbe P. (1994). L’État animateur. Essai sur la politique de la ville. Paris: Esprit.
  33. Field F. (2003). Neighbours from Hell: The Politics of Behaviour. London: Politicos.
  34. Fielding S. (2003). The Labour Party: Continuity and Change in the Making of ‘New’ Labour. Basingstoke: Palgrave Flint J. and Nixon J. (2006). Governing neighbours: Anti-social behaviour orders and new forms of regulating conduct in the UK. Urban Studies, 43, 5-6: 939-955.
  35. Flint J., ed. (2006). Housing, urban governance and anti-social behaviour. Perspectives, policy and practice. Bristol: Policy Press.
  36. Flutsy S. (2001). The banality of interdiction: Surveillance, control and the displacement of diversity. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 25: 658-664.
  37. Ford T. and Champion T. (2000). Who moves into, out of and within London? An analysis based on the 1991 Census 2% Sample of Anonymised Records. Area, 32, 3: 259-270.
  38. Forrest R. (1990). Residualisation and Council Housing: A Statistical Update. Bristol: School for Advanced Urban Studies.
  39. Foucault M. (1975). Surveiller et punir. Naissance de la prison. Paris: Gallimard. Franklin B. and Tait M. (2002). Constructing an image: The urban village concept in the UK. Planning Theory, 1, 3: 250-272.
  40. Fyfe N. (2004). Zero tolerance, maximum surveillance? Deviance, difference and crime control in the late modern city. In: Lees L., ed., The Emancipatory City: Paradoxes and Possibilities. London: Sage.
  41. Fyfe N. and Bannister J. (1998). The eyes upon the street: closed circuit television surveillance and the city. In: Fyfe N., ed., Images of the Street: Planning, Identity and Control in Public Space. London: Routledge.
  42. Gordon I. (2004). The resurgent city: what, where, how, and for when? Planning, Theory and Practice, 5, 3: 371-379.
  43. Hall P. (2006). The Land Fetish: Densities and London Planning. In: Kochan B., ed., London bigger and better?. London: LSE.
  44. Hall P., Thomas R., Gracey H. and Drewett R. (1973). The Containment of Urban England (2 vol.). London: George Allen and Unwin.
  45. Hamnett C. (2003). Unequal City: London in the Global Arena. London: Routledge.
  46. Harvey D. (1985). The urbanization of capital. Oxford: Blackwell.
  47. Heath T. (2001). Revitalizing cities: Attitudes toward city-center living in the United Kingdom. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 20: 464-475.
  48. Hetherington P. (2000). Rogers anger at White Paper omissions. The Guardian (Society), Nov 17th, --testo disponibile al sito: http://society.guardian.co.uk/urbandesign/story/0,,595903,00.html (ultimo accesso/11/4/2012).
  49. http://society.guardian.co.uk/urbandesign/story/0,,595903,00.html (ultimo accesso/11/4/2012).
  50. Hills J. and Stewart K., eds. (2005). A More Equal Society? New Labour, Poverty, Inequality and Exclusion. Bristol: Policy Press.
  51. Hobsbawm E.J. and Ranger T.O. (1983). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge-New York: Cambridge University Press.
  52. Holden A. and Iveson K. (2003). Designs on the urban: New Labour’s urban renaissance and the spaces of citizenship. City, 7, 1: 57-72.
  53. Holton G. (1978). The scientific imagination. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  54. Hoskins G. and Tallon A. (2004). Promoting the ‘urban idyl’: Policies for city centre living. In: Johnstone C. and and Whitehead M., eds., New Horizons in Brit ish Urban Policy: Perspectives on New Labour’s Urban Renaissance. Aldershot: Ashgate.
  55. Howard E. (1898). To-morrow a peaceful path to real reform. London: Swann and Sonneschein.
  56. Howard E. (1902). Garden Cities of Tomorrow. London: Faber and Faber.
  57. HRH The Prince of Wales (1989). A Vision of Britain: A personal View of Architecture. London: Doubleday.
  58. Hubbard P. (2004a). Cleansing the metropolis: Sex work and the politics of zero tolerance. Urban Studies, 41, 9: 1687-1702.
  59. Hubbard P. (2004b). Revenge and injustice in the neoliberal city: Uncovering masculinist agendas. Antipode, 36, 4: 665-686.
  60. Imrie R. and Raco M. (2003). Community and the changing nature of urban policy. In: Imrie R. and Raco M., eds., Urban Renaissance? New Labour, Community and Urban Policy. Bristol: Policy Press.
  61. Imrie R. and Thomas H. (1993). The limits of property-led regeneration. Environment and Planning C, 11: 87-102.
  62. Infussi F. (1998). Codificazioni e storie dell’urbanistica. Saggi sull’immaginario disciplinare. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  63. Jenks C. (1988). The Prince, the Architects and the New Wave Monarchy. London: Academy.
  64. Johnstone C. and MacLeod G. (2006). From Urban Renaissance to Sustainable Communities: Soft-focusing Revanchism in England’s Towns and Cities?, Paper presentato alla Revenge and Renewal Conference”, University of Newcastle, 10-11 agosto 2006.
  65. Jupp B. (1999). Living Together: Community Life on Mixed Tenure Estates. London: Demos.
  66. Kuhn T.S. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  67. Lawless P. (1991). Urban policy in the Thatcher decade: English inner-city policy, 1979-1990. Environment and Planning C, 9:15-30.
  68. Lees L. (1998). Urban renaissance and the street: space of control and contestation. In: Fyfe N., editor, Images of the Street: Planning, Identity and Control in Public Space. London: Routledge.
  69. Lees L. (2003). Visions of urban renaissance: The Urban Task Force Report and the Urban White Paper. In: Imrie R. and Raco M., editors, Urban Renaissance? New Labour, Community and Urban Policy. Bristol: Policy Press.
  70. Lefebvre H. (1968). Le droit à la ville. Paris: Anthropos.
  71. Lefebvre H. (1974). La production de l'espace. Paris: Anthropos.
  72. Leitner H., Sheppard E.S., Sziarto K. and Maringanti A. (2007). Contesting Urban Futures. Decentering Neoliberalism:Contesting Neoliberalism: Urban Frontiers.
  73. In: Leitner H., Peck J. and Sheppard E.S., eds., Contesting Neoliberalism: Urban Frontiers. London: Guilford Publications.
  74. Lever W. (1993). Re-urbanisation – the policy implications. Urban Studies, 30, 2:
  75. 267-284. Loftman P. and Nevin B. (1995). Prestige projects and urban regeneration in the 1980s and 1990s: A review of benefits and limitations. Planning Practice and Research, 10: 299-315.
  76. Lund B. (2002). Safe as houses? Housing policy under New Labour. In: Powell M., editor, Evaluating New Labour’s Welfare Reforms. Bristol: Policy Press.
  77. McCann E. (2004). ‘Best Places’: Interurban Competition, Quality of Life and Popular Media Discourse. Urban Studies, 41, 10: 1909-1929.
  78. Macleavy J. (2006). The language of politics and the politics of language: Unpacking ‘social exclusion’ in New Labour policy. Space and Polity, 10,1: 87-98.
  79. MacLeod G. (2002). From urban entrepreneurialism to a ‘Revanchist city’? On the spatial injustices of Glasgow’s renaissance. Antipode, 34, 3: 602-624.
  80. MacLeod G. and Ward K. (2002). Spaces of Utopia and Dystopia: Landscaping the contemporary city. Geografiska Annaler, 84B, 3-4: 153-170.
  81. Mazza L. (2009). Pianificazione strategica e cultura repubblicana. Relazione alla IAUS Conference “Regional Development, Spatial Planning and Strategic Governance”, Belgrade, December 7-8.
  82. Merrifield A. (2000). The dialectics of dystopia: Disorder and zero tolerance in the city. International Journal of Urban and Regional Studies, 24: 473-489.
  83. Mumford L. (1961). The City in History. Its Origins, Its Transformations and Its Prospects. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.
  84. Newman J. (2001). Modernising Governance: New Labour, Policy and Society. London, Sage.
  85. Newman O. (1972). Defensible Space: Crime Prevention through Environmental Design. New York: Macmillan.
  86. Newman O. (1997). Creating Defensible Space. Washington DC: Office of Policy Development and Research.
  87. Norris J., a cura di (1998). Surveillance, CCTV and Social Control. Aldershot: Ashgate.
  88. ODPM – Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (2005a). State of the Cities: A Progress Report to the Delivering Sustainable Communities Summit. London: ODPM.
  89. ODPM – Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (2005b). Planning for Mixed Communities: A Consultation Paper on a Proposed Change to Planning Policy Guidance Note 3: Housing. London: ODPM.
  90. Parkinson P. (1989). The Thatcher government’s urban policy: 1979 – 1989, a review. Town Planning Review, 60: 421-440.
  91. Patlagean E. (1978). Histoire de l’imaginaire. In: Le Goff J., sous la direction de, La nouvelle histoire. Paris: Retz.
  92. Peck J., Theodore N. and Brenner N. (2009). Neoliberal urbanism: Models, moments, mutations. SAIS Review, XXIX, 1: 49-66.
  93. Peck J. and Tickell A. (2002). Neoliberalizing Space. In: Brenner N. and Theodore N., editors, Spaces of Neoliberalism: Urban restructuring in North America and Western Europe. Oxford: Blackwell.
  94. Pine B. and Gilmore J. (1999). The Experience Economy: Work is Theater and Every Business a Stage. Cambridge: Harvard Business Press. Prideaux S. (2005). Not So New Labour: A Sociological Critique of New Labour’s Policy and Practice. Bristol: Policy Press.
  95. Punter J. (1986). A history of aesthetic control: Part I, 1909-1953: the control of the external appearance of development in England and Wales. Town Planning Review, 57, 4.
  96. Purcell M. (2009). Resisting neoliberalization: communicative planning or counterhegemonic movements? Planning Theory, 8, 2: 140-165.
  97. Raco M. (2003a). New Labour, community and the future of Britain’s urban renaissance. In: Imrie R. and Raco M., eds., Urban renaissance? New Labour, Community and Urban Policy. Bristol: Policy Press.
  98. Raco M. (2003b). Remaking place and securitising space: Urban regeneration and the strategies, tactics and practices of policing in the UK. Urban Studies, 40, 9: 1869-1887.
  99. Raco M. and Imrie R. (2003). Towards an Urban Renaissance? Sustainable Communities, New Labour and Urban Policy. Paper presentato alla Regional Studies
  100. Association Conference “Reinventing the Regions” Pisa, 12-15 aprile, testo disponibile al sito: http://www.regionalstudiesassoc.ac.uk/events/pisa03/racoandimrie.pdf (ultimo accesso/14/3/2012).
  101. Respect Task Force (2006). Respect Action Plan. London, Home Office.
  102. Rogers P. and Coaffee J. (2005). Moral panics and urban renaissance: Policy, tactics and youth in public space. City, 9, 3: 321-340.
  103. Rogers R. and Fisher M. (1992). A New London. London: Penguin Books. Rowlands R., Murie A. and Tice A. (2006). More Than Tenure Mix: Developer and Purchaser Attitudes to New Housing Estates. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation – Coventry: Chartered Institute of Housing.
  104. Sartre J.P. (1940). L’immaginaire. Psycologie phénoménologique de l’imagination. Paris: Gallimard.
  105. Sassen S. (2002). Deconstructing Labor Demand in Today's Advanced Economies: Implications for Low-Wage Employment. In: Munger F., ed., Laboring Below the Line: The New Ethnography of Poverty, Low-Wage Work, And Survival in the Global Economy. New York: Russell Sage.
  106. Schneider R. and Kitchen T. (2002). Planning for Crime Prevention: A Transatlantic Perspective. London: Routledge.
  107. Scoppetta C. (2004). Il paesaggio come risorsa. Per una evoluzione in senso strategico e progettuale dell’immaginario disciplinare italiano. Tesi di dottorato in Pianificazione Territoriale e Urbanistica. Roma: DPTUR Università “La Sapienza” di Roma, Dipartimento di Pianificazione Territoriale e Urbanistica.
  108. Scoppetta C. (2010). Gli “in-between spaces” come elemento caratterizzante la metropoli contemporanea. Una ipotesi progettuale. Roma: Cittalia-ANCI Ricerche.
  109. Scoppetta C. (2012) Selling port-cities. The case of Istanbul. BDC, 12.
  110. Secchi B. (2002). Prima lezione di urbanistica. Roma-Bari: Laterza.
  111. Shaw K. and Robinson F. (1998). Learning from experience: Reflections on two decades of British urban policy. Town Planning Review, 69, 1: 49-64.
  112. Smith N. (1996). The New Urban Frontier: Gentrification and the Revanchist City.
  113. London: Routledge. Stead D. (2004). Promoting an urban renaissance in England and the Netherlands. Cities, 21, 2: 119-136.
  114. Stevenson R.L. (1952). Lo Strano caso del dottor Jekyll e del signor Hyde. Milano: Rizzoli (ed. orig.: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1886).
  115. Sum N.L. (2009). The production of hegemonic policy discourses: ‘competitiveness’ as a knowledge brand and its (re-)contextualizations. Critical Policy Studies, 3, 2: 184-203.
  116. Sutcliffe A. (1981). The History of Urban and Regional Planning. An Annotated Bibliography. London: Mansell.
  117. Tafuri M. (1980). Le macchine “imperfette”. In: Morachiello P. e Teyssot G., a cura di (1980). Le macchine imperfette. Architettura, programma, istituzioni nel XIX secolo, Atti del Convegno. Roma: Officina.
  118. Tallon A.R. and Bromley R.D.F. (2004). Exploring the attractions of city centre living: Evidence and policy implications in British cities. Geoforum, 35, 6: 771-787.
  119. Tasan-Kok T. and Baeten G., eds. (2012) Contradictions of Neoliberal Planning: Cities, Policies, and Politics. New York: Springer.
  120. Todorovic J. and Wellington S. (2000). Living in Urban England: Attitudes and Aspirations. London: HMSO.
  121. Townsend A. (1993). The urban-rural cycle in the Thatcher growth years. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 18: 207-221.
  122. Turner T. (1995). Greenways, blueways, skyways and other ways to a better London. Landscape and Urban Planning, 33.
  123. Turok I. (1992). Property-led urban regeneration: Panacea or placebo? Environment and Planning A, 24: 361-379.
  124. Turok I. and Edge N. (1999). The Jobs Gap in Britain’s Cities: Employment Loss and Labour Market Consequences. Bristol: Policy Press.
  125. Urban Task Force (1999). Towards an Urban Renaissance. London: Spon.
  126. URBED, Mori Social Research and The University of Bristol (1999). But Would You Live There? Shaping Attitudes to Urban Living. London: HMSO.
  127. Abercrombie P. (1945). Greater London Plan 1944. London: HMSO.
  128. Allmendinger P. (2011). New Labour and Planning: From New Right to New Left. Abingdon: Routledge.
  129. Allmendinger P. and Haughton G. (2010). Spatial planning, devolution, and new planning spaces. Environment and Planning C, 28: 803-818.
  130. Allmendinger P. and Haughton G. (2009). Commentary: critical reflections on spatial planning. Environment and Planning A, 41: 2544-2549.
  131. Allmendinger P. and Haughton G. (2012). Post-political spatial planning in England: a crisis of consensus?. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers,
  132. 37: 89-103. Amin A., Massey D. and Thrift N. (2000). Cities for the Many Not for the Few. Bristol: Policy Press.
  133. Atkins J., Champion T., Coombes M., Dorling D. and Woodward R. (1996). Urban Trends in England: Last Evidence from the 1991 Census. London: HMSO.
  134. Atkinson R. (2003a). Misunderstood saviour or vengeful wrecker? The many meanings and problems of gentrification. Urban Studies, 40, 12: 2343-2350.
  135. Atkinson R. (2003b). Domestication by cappuccino or a revenge on urban space? Urban Studies, 40, 9: 1829-1843.
  136. Atkinson R. (2004). The evidence on the impact of gentrification: New lessons for the urban renaissance? European Journal of Housing Policy, 4, 1: 107-131.
  137. Atkinson R. and Kintrea K. (2000). Owner occupation, social mix and neighbourhood impacts. Policy and Politics, 28, 1: 93-108.
  138. Baldick C. (1990). In Frankenstein's Shadow. Myth, Monstrosity, and Nineteenth-Century Writing. Oxford: Oxford Unversity Press/Clarendon Press.
  139. URBED/ODPM (2002). Towns and Cities: Partners in Urban Renaissance. London: ODPM.
  140. Wallace M. (2001). A new approach to neighbourhood renewal in England. Urban Studies, 38, 12: 2163-2166.
  141. Watt P. and Jacobs K. (2000). Discourses of social exclusion: An analysis of bringing Britain together: A national strategy for neighbourhood renewal. Housing, Theory and Society, 17: 14-26.
  142. Wilde O. (1991). Il ritratto di Dorian Gray. Milano: Feltrinelli (ed. orig.: The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1890).
  143. Williams G. and Daly P. (2006). Mixed Communities as Outcomes of Regeneration Strategies? Lessons from Hulme City Challenge for the Housing Market Renewal Agenda. Paper presentato alla National Planning Research’s Global Spaces-Local Spaces Conference”, University College London, 5-7 aprile.
  144. Zukin S. (1995). The Cultures of Cities. Oxford: Blackwell.
  145. Zukin S. (1998). Urban lifestyles: Diversity and standardisation in space of consumption. Urban Studies, 35: 825-839.

Cecilia Scoppetta, Nuove ricette e vecchi "moventi" ri-emergenti. il caso di londra in "ARCHIVIO DI STUDI URBANI E REGIONALI" 109/2014, pp 74-95, DOI: 10.3280/ASUR2014-109005